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PS Vita Review: Senran Kagura Bon Appetite

Senran Kagura Bon Appetite pits the sexy female school ninjas up for another challenge. This time…it’s mediocrity. In all seriousness, the girls are up for a high stakes ninja cook off. The story is dreadful aside from some cheeky humor that while cute, don’t save the narrative. Thankfully cut-scenes can be skipped.

As a cooking rhythm game, one would expect two things from these genres, but each of which are broken in SKBA. First of all, players will mash buttons, to no rhythm, to a repetitive list of droll songs of sleepy drums, guttural rock, and a few good J-Pop tunes. There’s little variety to the mashing and the song selection is minimal and again, just plain bad. Secondly, the cooking is abysmal and non-present. The best cooking series out there is Cooking Mama. Yes, it’s just an arrangement of mini games designed around preparing food, but players get to know the dishes they are preparing. Not here. There’s not even an extra mode in which to read about recipes. It’s a TNA peep show, zooming around lady bits instead of focusing on the food. How crazy is that?

Sour tastes aside, there are a few sweet morsels in Bon Appetite. The girls still look amazing with customizable costumes to unlock. Plus there are also pictures, music, and voice samples to unlock. And if a track gets a perfect rating, there’s a special, genuinely sexy treat at the end. The game definitely nails its sexy design at the very least.

Senran Kagura Bon Appetite will only appeal to the hardcore of the hardcore fans out there. Sex sells after all. However, the gameplay just isn’t fun. It still boggles the mind on how wrong everything feels. Sorry girls, but this is one sour taste that can’t escape this writer’s mouth.

Score: 2/5 Stars

Special Notes: The publisher provided a review code for the game. This article was originally published on November 11, 2014 via my Examiner account before the website shut down.